Tuesday, May 27, 2014

The exhibition, Neo-sansu is designed to show how traditional sansuhwa or landscape painting and its aesthetic has been appropriated and modified for contemporary art in a contemporary manner in the age of technology (post-Internet). The exhibition brings together works by 31 Korean artists currently active in a wide range of genres in order to explore the meaning of the new landscape painting of our times.

Human beings have existed with nature for millions of years in both the East and the West. Humans have lived in tune with the rhythms of the natural environment surrounding them. For instance, Siddhartha Gautama tried to become one with the cycle of transmigration, or birth and death and rebirth, departing from ideas of cause and effect or dependent origination in the mundane world. Truth-seekers disciplined themselves to become spiritual immortals, realizing the principle of the universe in “Tao”, signifying the primordial essence or the fundamental nature of the universe. Human sensibility and spirit has pursued a bonding of man and nature, and all religions and arts as well as romantic ideas and back-homing instinct have been stimulated by this unity between man and nature. All works of art by great masters are thus valued according to how this confluence of man and nature is represented in their works. This is often associated with the matter of “representation” in art, so all traditional paintings in the East and the West intend to depict humans assimilated into nature.

Oriental landscape painting reflects a return to nature or the spirit of unity, interpreted as the virtue of life or the aesthetic norm of art. Exquisite landscape painting has been considered a representation of humanity’s ideals, emotions. An angler himself can be part of nature, and peasants featured in The Angelus by Jean-Francois Millet are also the same. As such, Eastern and Western landscape painting has assumed the metaphorical role of enhancing the worth of ideal nature and man. Numerous art trends have pursued diversity, but the only shared value they have consistently sought after is an ideal union between nature and man, despite different forms of expression.

And yet, nature has undergone drastic change in the modern age of technology. Nature no longer takes a crucial position in the human environment, and it is not in concert with humans. Nature has degenerated into an object of consumption like daily supplies and food. In this sense, modern landscape painting is different from traditional landscape painting in all respects.

First, modern landscape painting is no longer an object of representation but an object of mere technical manipulation. Second, modern landscape painting does not depend on any common aesthetic and does not bring about any sense of unity between the artist and viewer through nature. Third, if art reflects the technical environment, modern landscape painting can be seen as a sort of humor, manipulation, or mockery of traditional sansuhwa and nature. Consequently, landscape painting today has been imparted with meaning in the system of sign and image, refusing the assertion that nature is the force and symbol of the universe.

“I am not so interested in something like romanticism or sublime beauty. We are not too naïve to see nature as such. Nature portrayed in landscape painting is basically fake, and I initially had no such concept as harmonious nature. I have never thought about nature in the past tense.” -Kong, Sung-Hun

This exhibition will obviously present what neo-sansu, new landscape painting, is like in this technical environment.

-Y artist project 3-

Daegu Art Museum has carried forward the Y artist project in order to discover and nurture capable young artists with strong growth potential into leading artists in the domestic and overseas art scenes. Park Junghyun, one of the five artists chosen for the Y artist project in 2012, is the third artist to hold a solo show, following the exhibitions of Lee Wan and Lee Hyein.

Comfortable-Un-comfortable

Many people today try to divorce man from nature, seeking an abundant, convenient material life. Moreover, they do not consider why they consume so many articles for their more convenient, abundant life, taking it for granted. However, human progress cannot be achieved through consumption of materials, but is triggered by a constant consideration of and concern for the true nature of humans.

Excessive comfortableness can take tension so it also can take perspective on new things.

- Park Junghyun

Park Junghyun(1977- ) suggests that viewers enjoy deficiency over richness, inconvenience over convenience. That is, as richness and convenience have their own value, and we can make a step forward with deficiency and inconvenience, the artist intends to comment on the dialectic melding of diverse values in our lives. Table Park released in 2008 was the first work encapsulating this idea. Since then the artist has presented diverse works pertaining to anti-value.

Comfortable-Un-comfortable including his new works are composed and displayed at the Daegu Art Museum's Gallery 4 and 5 in his solo show comfortable-Un-comfortable. The exhibition displaying a dialectic relation between convenience and inconvenience will furnish viewers with an opportunity to rethink what they have considered natural conditions of our lives.

Monday, May 26, 2014

If there’s one
thing that Korea isn’t lacking, it’s barbecue restaurants. In fact, it seems
like there are entire streets downtown dedicated to barbecue. Choosing between
all those restaurants can be daunting, but if you want a waygook-tested,
waygook-approved barbecue place, check out this hidden gem.

Sangin is in the
south-west part of Daegu. It’s 10 stops away from Banwoldang on the red line,
but it’s almost like a mini-downtown. There are plenty of places to shop or to
eat. Among these restaurants, there is a fantastic barbecue place that is well known
to the foreign community in the area. The sign outside the restaurant says it
is called, “돼지양념구이집,” but
foreigners simply call it “red pork” after a favorite item on the menu.

돼지양념구이 is a family-run barbecue restaurant. Often, the father prepares the food in the back room, and his son helps run the grills at the tables, but the real face of the restaurant is the mother. She is a very sociable woman who is always very pleased to have foreigners visit her restaurant. Although she doesn’t speak very much English, she always tries to engage in conversation. The foreigners have all lovingly dubbed her “ the Red Pork Lady,” since they do not know her real name.

As previously
mentioned, a popular dish amongst the foreigners who frequent the restaurant is
red pork. It is pork marinated in a semi-spicy sauce, and it is delicious! You
can choose to eat the pork on its own, but the Koreans have their own way of
eating barbecue. You may have seen this before. Korean barbecue restaurants
usually provide a basket of lettuce leaves to customers. Those leaves are meant
to be used as wraps. When the meat is done grilling, put a few pieces into the
leaves, add a little bit of rice, some doenjang (fermented soy bean paste), and
maybe a glove of garlic (also provided as banchan), and roll it all together.
It’s a much more authentic Korean barbecue experience when you eat that way,
and it’s super tasty!

Like most barbecue
places, you order by the plate, and the portions are quite generous. You are
not obligated to order the same number of plates as there are people in your
party. Red pork costs about 8,000 won per plate. The meal comes with bottomless
banchan (side dishes), including a spicy salad and cut up vegetables. In
addition to red pork, the restaurant has a variety of inexpensive soups. Please
note: If you want rice, you must order your side of rice in addition to the
meat. Rice is only 1,000 won extra though.

The restaurant is
a short walk away from Sangin station on the red line. Go out exit 4. Walk
straight, and take your second right.
You’ll see a Daegu Bank across the street on your left at the point
where you need to turn right. Google maps refers to this street as, “월곡로53길” if
you are looking for it on your phone or computer. This alley has tons of
restaurants on it, including other barbecue place. Continue walking down the
street until you see a yellow sign on your left with green and red lettering.
The signs says, “돼지양념구이.” Enjoy your meal!

Friday, May 23, 2014

Daegu government
is planning to hold the 15th Daegu Tourism Souvenir Contest. Through the
contest, the government looks forward to discovering wonderful souvenirs
expressing the image of Daegu that let Daegu citizens and the visitors can bring
back the memories of Daegu.

The winners will
have chances of promoting their works through participating in the major
tourism exhibitions in Korea as well as publishing brochures of their own.
Moreover, they will be given the qualification to apply 'the 17th Korea Tourism
Souvenir Contest'.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

"To see life, to see the world"―Henry
Luce(The founder of 'Time', 'Fortune' and 'Life')

The magazine,'LIFE' was first founded in 1883.

In 1936, however, Henry Luce, the founder of 'Time' magazine, turned it into a weekly magazine with a heavy emphasis on
photojournalism. And it immediately became 'the most successful LIFE' with
historical sales records in 3 years after having re-founded.

The great photographers of the 20th century have featured
on the cover of LIFE, such as Alfred Eisenstaedt, W. Eugene Smith, Robert Capa
and Yousuf Karsh. With the advent of this special magazine, photographs, which
had been regarded as ancillary part in the journal, started to take an
important role on photojournalism. The magazine has been building its own
identity by running diverse spectrum of high quality photos on it. People
equated LIFE with the photos ran on it and the photos themselves became a history
showing the glory days of the magazine. Though the magazine was past its prime,
the photos on it still meet people all around the world in a form of the photo
exhibition, 'Life'.

Now, the turn has come to Daegu at last!!

The exhibition is organized to reflect three key themes, "People”,
“Moments” and “Life”.